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After six months, Steve Jobs speaks

One million reasons why 'The iPhone is winning'

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs took his first small step towards retaking the reins in Cupertino on Monday morning, issuing a short statement in a press release announcing that sales of the company's new iPhone 3GS* (Reg review link) have topped one million since its release last Friday.

Jobs has been conspicuously absent from any Apple statements and events since he announced back in January that he would take a medical leave due to "health-related issues" that were "more complex than I originally thought."

At that time, Jobs said that his medical leave of absence would last "until the end of June" - a story that Cupertino has stuck to, presumably attempting to allay concern among not only stockholders and Apple aficionados, but also the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

And today, a mere weekend after it was revealed that he had received a liver transplant in April, Jobs broke his silence in a short statement in an Apple press release trumpeting the fact that the company had sold over "one million iPhone 3GS models through Sunday, June 21."

The contribution by Apple's co-founder and CEO was classic Jobsian competitiveness and confidence:

"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."

The end of June is drawing nigh - and, it appears, so is Steve Jobs's reemergence as Apple's prime spokesperson and reality-distortion-field wielder. ®

Bootnote

* Copy-editing types will notice that the iPhone 3GS has lost a space in its name. In marketing materials on Apple's website, it has been referred to as the iPhone 3G S, but now it's the 3GS. We're only speculating, of course, but this attention to minute detail has all the hallmarks of Jobsian influence.